C. Executive Education

Each of the asynchronous online offerings described here was led by Harvard faculty and schools using internal resources and leveraging either Harvard’s residential learning management system in use (Canvas) or partly and wholly owned platforms (HBS Online, edX12 , and open edX).That’s instead of relying largely on external platforms or on the strategy, increasingly employed by universities, of outsourcing to online program managers. 13

C. Executive Education

In addition to building capabilities in asynchronous online content creation over the past decade, some Harvard schools gained substantial experience in delivering high-quality synchronous online programs. Most of those were executive education offerings. They had a broad range of price points and were designed to reach learners who would find it hard to come to Harvard. That experience proved valuable during the transition to remote teaching, as faculty members with it coached and helped their peers with Zoom-style teaching. Examples of pre-Covid synchronous offerings are described below. • To give students the flexibility to attend in-person, live online, or on-demand, the Division of

Continuing Education (DCE) created HELIX classrooms. HELIX displays remote students on large monitors, enabling real-time two-way communication. By training instructors to include all students seamlessly, DCE has increased both class size and student satisfaction, at fees often well below those of residential programs. • The HBS Live Classroom was launched in 2015 by HBS Online as a real-time, multiscreen, interactive online classroom to enable synchronous learning for up to 60 (now 90) learners at once. Its programs had high engagement, learner-to-learner interactions through chat features, sometimes observers who could participate only through chat, and global reach. Its custombuilt classrooms created learning experiences that were generally superior to Zoom, in large part because the environment had some features of a regular classroom (blackboards and the ability to walk around), producing similar energy and dynamism. Two new HBS Live classrooms, built just prior to the pandemic, launched in summer 2020 and were instrumental in moving HBS executive education programs online. • The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) had over the years substantially expanded its on-campus, largely summertime offerings by creating online programs available throughout the year. Its Online Professional Development Programs ranged from workshops and certificate programs to “longer, virtual institutes featuring live webinars to accommodate many different learning preferences and schedules.” That has enabled HGSE to target senior leaders and administrators in targeted topic areas that complement and scale up its in-person programs. • Hybrid programs include the Harvard School of Public Health’s hybrid degree program, launched in 2015, and the Harvard Business Analytics Program (HBAP), launched in 2018.

These rely on synchronous Zoom classes, offline asynchronous materials and group projects,

12 In summer 2021, edX was sold to the online education company 2U and the proceeds were used to create a new non-profit organization focused on expanding equity and access in education. 13 Going forward, there may be certain areas in which we’ll rely on external vendors. We’ll return to this issue later.